This is a cake my husband and I made for our son's birthday awhile ago & I wanted to share it here on my creative blog because it's such a fun cake :)

First I have to say, that I loved this octopus and I thought it was soooo cute. I wanted to do cupcakes because I thought these would be easy, but my son is more of the realistic type & wanted it to look more like a real one. Which to me translated into, a lot more work.

Like this cupcake? You can find it here.
While I was looking for underwater inspiration, I found these cute clams. I tried to convince my son to let me put these on top of cupcakes--again, easy.

When I was planning my daughter's party I didn't realize I would have to worry about coming up with a way to keep the ice cream cone cupcakes upright.

That is, until I made them and tried to get them to stand up. This is where an ice cream cone stand would have come in handy. Since I didn't have one, I figured I'd better come up with something quick.

I decided to use cardstock and my nifty Cricut. Using my SCAL software I created a page that looked like this...

First I measured the cupcake stand and made the big circle that size & then I measured the ice cream cones and made all the small circles that size. It was a trial and error type of project, so I didn't use my nice paper until I was absolutely sure it was the right size.

I made the bottom layer the same way, except with a larger circle & I cut out a notch for the upper layer cake stand.

And there you have it, a last minute way to get your ice cream cone cupcakes to stand up! I think it worked really well and looked nice too.

First, I bought these pretty glass jars from a thrift store and from Hobby Lobby.

Second, we talked about what stick figure picture they wanted on their jars. The stick figure represents them, so I let them tell me what they wanted to look like. For example, they both wanted pig tails, one wanted to be a spinning ballerina with a crown on her head and the other wanted to be a gymnast with a tutu. (Isn't that a ballerina?) Then they got to pick the font they wanted for their name. Then I designed them in SCAL and cut it out of vinyl on my Cricut.

Third, I made up this story about a little girl and her day. As the little girl goes throughout her day, each choice she makes either makes her happy or sad. She sees that the more good/happy choices she makes, she feels warm and FULL of happiness. (i.e. she gets dressed and brushes her teeth when mommy asks her, is nice to another girl at school, sets the table, helps her sister...) When she makes bad choices she sees that it makes her feel sad and EMPTY inside. (i.e. doesn't put her shoes on when it's time to go, complains when she has to turn off the T.V., doesn't eat her dinner, doesn't share...) As we told the story, we filled a blank jar with M&M's when she made choices that make her feel "FULL" and then took out M&M's when she made choices that made her feel "EMPTY". When the little girl made so many good choices she was overflowing with happiness and was able to share that with others around her. And when it came to that point in the story, there jar was so full that it was overflowing and we all got to have some M&M's.

Fourth, then we showed the girls their jars and explain that the same thing happens with each of us. Our choices make us "FULL" or "EMPTY" an

d the jar represents us and the M&M's represent our choices. When their jars are overflowing, they get to eat the candy that is overflowing & to give them a head start we started their jars half full.

Fifth, following through and consistency. This is the hard part. The girls have to see themselves throughout the day getting filled or emptied according to the choices they make. We've been doing this for almost a week and we've seen a difference in our home.

We've really been trying to teach our children there are consequences for their actions and that their choices determine their happiness. This isn't the only parenting technique we use in our home, but it really helps!

I had an idea in my head of how I was going to make this, but it evolved as I started creating. Isn't that how most projects go?

We recently purchased bookshelves on clearance from Walmart and I made my hubby keep the cardboard just for this project.

I cut the cardboard to fit the table I was planning on using for the party & then I realized all the folds were perfect for the shape of my awning, so I didn't have to do any bending of the cardboard. Yeah for little things that go my way!!

I decided I wanted to connect cardboard on the back of the awning, so I could set up some type of backdrop to the dessert table as well. I cut another piece that would serve as the backing for the backdrop and I connected the two pieces with my staple gun. I stapled through the cardboard (without hitting the floor) and then I turned the cardboard over and bent the staples down with a pair of scissors. I'm sure you could use something else to bend the staples down, but scissors is what I had on hand due to laziness of having to search for something else.

Next, I knew that I would need something to support the whole structure so I bought 5 - 1/2" dowels from Walmart and used three on the back and 2 on the front ends of the awning. I attached them with packing tape (and then duct tape once I ran out of that & the store was no longer open that late at night) & they held just fine.

I was done with this part for a couple weeks and this structure sat in our living room just waiting for me to return to it. During that time, my husband decided I needed a little help in getting it to stand up straight. Thank goodness for hubbies!!

So he found some scrap pieces of wood and we created this beauty together! I know, you're all thinking you want one of these puppies lying around your house as well :) The good thing about this is we created this the same night I finished putting the whole thing together.

We created an U shape to go around the back and sides of the table and then drilled holes for each of the dowels to fit it.

And now you can see what it looks like bare boned & you can see that duct tape I was talking about.

Now a little on the fabric.

I found this fabric at Walmart and it's a heavy broadcloth type fabric for around $5 a yard.

I used painters tape & ruler to mark where I wanted my stripes.

This is what it looked like before painting began. The stripes are about 4" thick.

We first started out with fabric paint and when I ran out I just used craft paint. The kind that's only like $1.25 at the store. I used about 1.5 bottles for the whole awning & I love the tangerine orange color!

Once the paint was dry and the fabric was attached to the cardboard, I created a stencil to cut the scallops on the fabric. I used my coluzzle to cut a 4" circle, then I cut it in half and used duct tape on the back to hold it on the fabric & it worked like a charm.

This is a blurry picture, but it was the only one I got at this stage of the production, so I had to include it so you could see what it looked like before all the details were added. I simply attached white fabric with duct tape (I may have to use it more often seeing how handy it is) to use as a backdrop to hide all that cardboard & it worked perfectly.

And here's the final product again.

In this picture you can see that I added a table cloth to hide the wood on the bottom and the backdrop is perfect for attaching any signage you want. I ended up using my kitchen counter instead of the table because the crazy wind wouldn't allow an outside party, but it ended up being just as good as the table.

If you have any questions about this project please leave me a comment or send me an email.

And another reason I wanted to create this was so my girls can have a lemonade stand if they decide they want one. I'll just remove the cardboard from the back & hopefully the 4 dowels (one on each corner) will support the awning. I'll have to let you know if they actually have one this summer.

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Chelsea, Dacia, Mashaide

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